Halo: A Tale of Their Childhood
by Doctor Life MD
Summary: Before a man becomes a soldier, he is first a child. This is the story of John Frederick Kaiser and his growth through childhood, as well as his befriending and bonding with several of his classmates throughout his twelve school years. Story follows the lives of original characters within the Halo series.


**Norfolk, Virginia, United Republic of North America, 1020 hours, January 24th, 2538  
** Norfolk. One of the largest port cities of the United Republic of North America and one of the more densely and largely populated areas on the entire Eastern Coast of the large country. The city of Norfolk was covered in several kilometer tall skyscrapers, with broad bases and thin tops, in a silver-white color scheme with various advertisement boards placed on them on various levels. It was an economic powerhouse of the United Republic, fueling the nation state's 'wet' navy's production and maintenance, as well as housing several profitable businesses that provide great revenue and development initiatives.

In other words, Norfolk was a lively city. Several layers of roads, MagLev railroads and a sky full of air traffic represented how densely it was populated. Tens of millions resided within this city, most of them packed into the skyscraper-packed center of the city that had integrated historical cities such as Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Hampton and Newport News into its core territory. The city's suburban regions were even more expansive, stretching the already large city out by quite a bit and including in them the Virginia Beach area. Unlike the monotonous city center, the suburban area was covered with houses of diverse types and colors, and of various property sizes as well as the dimensions of houses themselves.

However, snow was the only thing that made most of these houses appear equal in color from the top and within the suburban areas of the city.

Among this orderly maze of suburban dwellings was a massive education complex - a large private academy that holds several square miles of land for itself. It was located in the Bayside part of the city and it was capable of sustaining twenty thousand students, excluding staff, within its facilities. The entire complex itself was six stories high at its peak and descended four stories below surface level. The complex was colored the same way the buildings of the city center were coated - in a silver-white color, but its roofs were colored in an earth green color. The massive campus had two large landing areas for vertical take-off and landing craft, outdoor pools, football fields, soccer fields, basketball fields, baseball fields, several dormitory buildings, libraries and many other buildings, excluding the massive education buildings. The central building - the one where students spend most of their time on campus - featured a large biodome as its eastern wing, which was also known as the science wing. On its south side was an oval shaped building which featured an extended roof covering it. That was the standard education section where students were taught the basics of what they would need further in life. The western side was more of a rectangular area, but still featuring round corners and a slight similarity to the oval section on the south. That was the military education wing, built specifically by the United Nations Space Command to train young officers for future careers in the UNSC Armed Forces. The northern section was another standard education section, but considerably larger than the southern one. It was of the same design as the southern one. The rest of the specialized lessons were taught in the four underground levels of the campus. These four wings were all connected to the central building - a building that looked like a four-angled star when looked at from the top, but as a rectangular tower with a pyramid-shaped roof when viewed from ground level. This central building also had a thin, but tall antenna extending upwards. It provided students access to the UEG-wide Waypoint and ChatterNet systems for all their daily needs.

But no student had time to use Waypoint or ChatterNet during that time as lessons were proceeding to their fullest extent. In the northern wing, in the building's northernmost room, there was a class of first graders who were, at the time, studying basic mathematics. In that class, out of a total of thirty-eight children aged seven to eight, one of them looked like he did not fit in, or did not want to fit in. It was an eight year old boy with short, dark brown hair, big and round hazel eyes and with an average height for boys of his age. It was a young boy named John Frederick Kaiser who spent his time in class staring blankly through the large window, observing snowflakes falling from the sky, with aircraft in the distance and sometimes passing overhead, while barely keeping his hearing focused on what the teachers were saying at the very front of the classroom.

Dressed in his school's black uniform that consisted of a white shirt with a black tie, a jacket and trousers, including socks and derby shoes, he was slightly leaning over his table made of oak wood with stainless steel table legs, his head supported by one arm while the other was pretending that he was writing something down on his datapad. Meanwhile, every single one of his classmates were busy writing down everything that their teacher told them to write down, but Kaiser could not focus on the lesson. He was more impressed by the outside world. That, and he had already learned everything that this lesson had to offer, because his mother was always tutoring him - filling his mind with knowledge before it gets passed to him in school.

The lesson went on until an electronic bell rung throughout the hallways of the school, marking the beginning of a break between lessons. It was a ten minute break. Kaiser did not use this ten minute break at all. He merely waited for the next lesson throughout those ten minutes. Then came the next lesson and this time it was a lesson on North American literature for kids. Kaiser listened to it, but for the most part he was zoning out of the lesson.

By 12:30, the bells rang once more and the kids around him cheered. It was time for a lunch break. While most kids left to the dining halls, Kaiser pulled out his lunch box from his backpack and took out two sandwiches and a packaged bowl of homemade salad that his mother gave him, as well as a small carton of orange juice to wash it all down with. He dug into his lunch and savored its taste with each bite.

Out of the kids who usually packed their own lunch boxes, John Kaiser was the only one who did not join someone else for small-talk during lunchtime. The girls had formed their own group and the boys had their own, separate one. This highlighted the issue that Kaiser had created for himself - he was the class's loner. He had no friends, no one to talk to and he barely spoke at all. By the end of the first semester, he earned the nickname "Shadow," due to the fact that he simply remained in the shadows or merged in with others, so that people would not pay attention to him. One thing that made him excel among others, though, was that he had above average grades, so some people - quite bravely, but ultimately with no results - attempted to get him to help with their studies. He refused every single one.

However, on that day, one eccentric boy approached Kaiser's table and set down his lunch box on the other side from Kaiser. It was the class's most instantly recognizable face - Christopher Siterius, a young boy of Swedish descent with a penchant for getting into trouble. Christopher was of a similar height to John, with black hair, dark hazelnut brown eyes and natural beige skin color, the same as everyone in this class, and with the face of a delinquent who means no actual harm, he began eating his lunch right across the slightly puzzled Kaiser.

John was puzzled. His usual routine was broken up by someone who invaded his personal space for reasons that John could not understand.

" _What's he doing? This is my table. He has his own…"_ He internalized his thoughts, not wanting to stop what he was doing, which was eating the food his mother prepared just for him. For a moment, John even thought that this delinquent might even want to take one of his sandwiches, so he kept his hand over them. Just in case.

Minutes passed as both of them ate their food in silence, with incredible endurance for children being put on display as neither of them spoke to each other. Suddenly, they were at the center of attention, too. That unnerved John. He did not like being in everyone's line of sight. Their piercing gazes trying to read into him made him feel beyond uneasy and it forced him to speak to Christopher to divert his attention away from the others.

"What do you want, Siterius?" John asked in an uncaring, detached tone.

"I'm happy that you asked!" Christopher began smiling. Grinning, even. It was as if he had a devious plan in the back of his mind, ready to be thrown into action. But Christopher's answer left more questions than answers in John's mind. Still, Christopher continued.

"You are that one that does not talk. Our class has come to know you as "the Shadow," because you do not talk and remain in darker areas of our class." Christopher pointed at a pillar located right next to John's table. The sun that was shining weakly into the classroom was casting a shadow right over John.

John huffed and looked away from Christopher, trying his best to push him away by not showing any interest.

"I don't care," he whispered, but it was loud enough that Christopher could hear it. Chris tilted his head slightly at that remark. Chris tried to understand. He thought that maybe his classmate was silently bullied, but he could not bring himself to ask something like that. Instead, Christopher asked a simple question.

"Why?"

John turned to face him, again with a blank expression. He narrowed his eyes as he stared into Christopher's curious gaze that was waiting for an answer.

"I just don't need friends. I want to be left alone," said John in a slightly aggressive tone, emphasizing his desire to remain lonely.

Christopher was taken aback by this. He knew from personal experience that whenever he interacted with someone, they freely talked back, even if they were slightly asocial. But John's behavior made Chris even more curious.

Chris resumed his lunch, which was nothing more than sandwiches. He quickly finished it, then grabbed his lunch box and stood up from where he was sitting. He freely extended his right hand towards John, who was still eating, pointed with his index finger, and announced to the entire classroom.

"John Frederick Kaiser, you will be my newest friend," he exclaimed, then put his hand down. He lowered his tone as he continued, just to keep their conversation private. "You will need me more than I will need you."

Christopher grinned. He grinned and felt like he had issued a challenge that he intended to win, and the entire classroom would serve as witnesses should any of them forget. After Chris issued what certainly did sound like a challenge, the group of boys on the other side of the classroom called out to him, wanting him to return to them and leave Kaiser by himself.

"Come on, Chris! Get back here, leave him alone," said one of the boys who was shorter than average, had spiky hair with blue-gray eyes and wore his uniform in a messy way.

As Chris heard that, he waved back at the group of boys and raised two fingers, indicating two minutes. He wanted two minutes to finish up with John. So, he turned back to face the walking mystery, only to notice that he had finished eating and his attention had been turned away from Chris. Naturally, it came as a shock and an irritation to Chris, but he was determined to turn Kaiser into a friend.

"Just you watch, we'll be friends soon!" He murmured to himself as he turned to leave Kaiser's desk.

Aside from the boys who were watching the entire exchange, the girls also had peeked onto what had been occurring between Kaiser and Siterius. The girls began gossiping about it, each offering their own thoughts of what they witnessed. One of them did not, however. She was a red-haired girl with green eyes and an oval face, dressed in the girl's uniform of the school, with the difference being that, as a girl, she had to wear a long skirt instead of trousers. She was one of the few people in the entire classroom who gave Kaiser attention for more than a few seconds at a time, but unlike others, she could feel something else, other than a curiosity. She felt sadness. Not sadness from him, but sadness at his situation.

John, who was staring through the window at that time, suddenly felt like he was being watched. He slowly turned his head to the center of the classroom, staring right to the front, and noticed a red-haired girl staring at him. It was only less than a second later that she registered that John was staring right back at her, and she immediately turned around to face the other girls.

John raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but quickly dismissed any possible theories and returned to staring out of the window. Soon after that moment, the bell rang and everyone returned to the classroom. It was time for the next lessons of the day. All of these lessons passed pretty quickly, except for the very last one of the day. The very last lesson of the day was history. Their teacher, a middle aged man with short hair, a square face, a stare that indicated high professionalism at his job, and wearing a male version of the school's official uniform, was finishing the lesson during the last five minutes of it and what he said piqued young John's attention.

"... and that's about it for today's lesson, children. For your grading of the month, I want you to divide into groups and create a presentation about a colony or country of your choice. That will be all for today's lessons," finished the teacher as he turned off the interactive blackboard's screen, turned off his datapad's screen, packed it in his personal bag and sat down on his chair and looked at the class trying to divide into groups.

John growled silently to himself. The prospect of being forced to work with someone was not something that he had in mind and it was something that he had managed to avoid. It felt like the teacher set this up just for him, especially since the teacher knew John would be able to complete a project like this without any outside help. But that could not be helped anymore. From the few months he's already spent in the school, he knows that his teacher's word is final and arguing against it would be a waste of time. So, John's eyes started scanning the classroom for potential people to form a group with. To his surprise, he found three potential candidates for it and one of them was Christopher Siterius. It seemed that Christopher was refusing every offer to join groups and he even shot a glance in John's general direction to see how he was doing.

John, of course, remained as steady as a rock and merely decided to play the waiting game. At first, one boy approached him - a boy with below average height and slightly messy brown hair. This boy stood next to John and introduced himself properly.

"Hi. My name is Jeromy Scott Storm, but friends just call me Jeromy. Can I form a group with you?" He extended his hand for a hand shake. It was apparently what Jeromy was taught to do, a formality, when introducing himself. John stood up to face Jeromy properly. He accepted his handshake after a few seconds of observation and introduced himself properly to him.

"I am John Frederick Kaiser. Just call me John."

After the brief introduction, John sat back down on his chair. Jeromy took a chair from a nearby desk and dragged it closer to John's just to sit down with him and start discussing their project.

But John was more intent on observing Christopher's reaction. And Christopher certainly had a reaction - shock and disbelief. Disbelief at the thought that John was in a group with someone else already. And that another person was approaching.

It was that same girl that had been watching John for a while.

"Um… excuse me?" She silently and softly spoke up to the person she approached. Once John's attention shifted to her, John stood up to properly speak to her in a formal manner.

This girl performed a small curtsey and introduced herself right after the action.

"My name is Myra Erika Henderson. Can I join you two?" She sounded very unsure of herself. If anything else, she even sounded afraid. Jeromy did not pick up on it, but John could tell something discomforted her.

"Of course, I guess," he tried to sound as casual as possible, but he felt uncomfortable with it himself. He put a hand around the back of his neck as a subconscious sign that he was uncomfortable as well. But John further added to try and make things easier for the girl; "Don't be shy."

John's eyes immediately darted to a figure coming up besides the girl. It was none other than Christopher Siterius, who looked like he was still in a deep state of disbelief. But he got over it quickly.

"He doesn't actually bite or turn into a werewolf when in a shadow," Christopher tried to make things easier for the two others between him and John. In response to what Christopher said, John sat down, leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms as he looked away again.

"How can you know? We talked for five minutes." John reminded Christopher in a rather cold and detached tone, but Christopher ignored that.

"I know things," Chris replied with a sheepish grin and a look of childhood innocence in his eyes.

The newly formed group all grabbed chairs from around them and set them around John's table. They sat down on these chairs and began looking at each other, observing their fellows for the first time since they started going to school. But they did not exchange stares with each other for long. The more mysterious and secretive Kaiser was the target of their observation for more, but he did not seem the least bit interested in observing the faces of his group members. Instead, he seemed more interested in writing out a plan for their project.

For a second, he lifted his eyes from the datapad in which he was typing and noticed three pairs of eyes spying on him. It made him slightly uncomfortable and irritated him. He slowly lowered his datapad until it touched the table.

"Please stop staring," Kaiser requested in a polite manner, avoiding the irritation that was boiling within him. To get things going for the project, he passed the datapad to the first person to his right - Christopher.

Once Christopher picked up the datapad and looked at it, he felt a little overwhelmed and blown back by the amount of data that John had already managed to put into it. It showed in his eyes that were wide open and his mouth that was partly hanging.

"You wrote all this down in ten seconds?" Christopher asked with uncertainty in his voice and a finger pointed at the datapad as he held it in his other hand and showed the text to John.

"Five minutes," answered Kaiser as he leaned back in his chair.

"Five minutes? I was certain only thirty seconds passed," Chris looked back at the datapad again and memorized the tasks that John had laid out and the open spaces he left that were left specifically for names.

"Five minutes. That is how long you were looking at each other and me," he scoffed, then perfectly followed up with a sigh. While Chris passed the datapad further to Jeromy, who looked at it, then passed it to Myra who took her time to observe the information contained on it, John waited. Once Myra was the one reading, John spoke up once again.

"Now we decide on the topic. A colony or a country on Earth?" He asked and seconds afterwards, Myra returned his datapad back to him.

Christopher and Jeromy acted like they were thinking hard about it, even going so far as to place their index fingers over their chins.

" _They are total airheads."_ John thought to himself as he stared over the two other guys in his group. He slowly shifted his gaze over to Myra who was intently fidgeting with her fingers, holding her hands above the table so everyone can see. That is, until she spoke up.

"Th-there is one place that not many will pick," she spoke up, unsure of her words and shaky in her tone. John noticed that her eyes were locked with the front of the classroom where he noticed that the wall-mounted screen behind the teacher was active and showing each group and what they had decided on. Most decided to present projects about various nation states on Earth or colonies in the Sol system, like the United Republic of North America, the United Kingdom, Mars and so on. John managed to figure out that Myra's plan was to create a project about a colony far away.

"What would that be?" Jeromy asked, eager to hear Myra's proposal.

"Sanctuary colony. It is currently housing a lot of war refugees and is one of the largest colonies in human space."

"Ooh," Jeromy echoed with a simple sound of amazement. Like the others, they had never heard of this "Sanctuary" colony, which should not be surprising considering that they are seven year olds. Still, many of the children in the class they were in came from different star systems in general, so knowing a few colonies was essential to understanding their fellows.

While Jeromy and Christopher were silently whispering to each other, John moved slightly closer to Myra with his chair. He wanted to look for this "Sanctuary" colony together with Myra, because she brought it up and had some knowledge of it. Myra felt unusually odd at this straightforward behavior that John was exhibiting, specifically the way he nonchalantly brought his chair closer to her without even looking troubled by it. It was not usual as children of their age usually would not do that.

As John scrolled through the list of colonies over Waypoint, Myra followed along and read every colony's name and short description. Once he approached the list of colonies beginning with the letter "B," Myra looked in more intently. Within a few seconds, the colony she was looking for was found.

"Wait, here!" She pointed at his datapad's screen when a colony by the name of "Bismarck III" appeared on his screen. The short description described the colony as larger than Earth in diameter with three life-sustaining moons and a population booming out of proportions due to war refugees, thus earning it the nickname "Sanctuary."

"Oh, it was only a nickname," John slowly chanted to himself, but Myra caught it.

"Sorry," she apologized for not knowing the real name, but John merely looked in her direction for a split second before he replied.

"Stupid, don't apologize for it," he whispered to her in a half mocking, half detached tone. He thought that her apologizing out of the blue was uncalled for.

Meanwhile, the two other guys in the group finished whispering with each other. Their focus, once again, was turned towards John. Amongst themselves, they had determined John to be their leader, so the first thing they was wait until he would look them in the eyes.

For a split second he did, but that was the extent of his attention that he offered them. It naturally puzzled Chris; it made him think that maybe John thought himself to be above others.

"You guys are strange." John spoke up while Chris and Jeromy were eyeing him. The constant stream of attention he was getting was making him far more uncomfortable than usually, so he just wanted to get this day over with.

"Our colony is Bismarck III in the Bismarck system, some thirty-one light-years away from Earth. Jeromy, you will find out and write down everything you can find about its landscape. Christopher, look up the colony's history and write it all down. Myra and I will compile the information, fix parts of it and present it in front of the class by the end of the month." John told his fellows about the plan he had mentally prepared in his mind, crossed his arms and looked at everyone. He was waiting for their responses, but the most he got out of them was a series of nods.

" _Good enough, I guess,"_ John once again spoke to himself mentally after seeing the answers he got from them.

He packed his datapad back into his bag and promptly left the classroom, leaving the rest of his group behind him.

By 16:30, John had returned home with one of his family's maids accompanying him. January 24th, a Friday, had officially ended in his head and all he wanted to do was get some rest, but he knew there was no rest for him. He had every day planned out for him. At precisely 17:00 every day, he had to go to his afterschool activities teacher - a fancy name for a martial arts instructor that his mother and father had assigned to drill fighting skills, social skills and general knowledge into him every day for two hours.

Because John Frederick Kaiser was chosen by the Kaiser family to continue in their footsteps and enlist. Because his destiny was predetermined for him. Any objections John may have had were brushed off, because he was too young to understand. That, and his parents were rarely around to listen to his objections. Instead, a maid or two was always around to listen to him and comfort him or help him.

At 17:00, John left his home - a large, rather luxurious building located in the suburban area of Norfolk, next to the coastline - along with a maid of the family that walked alongside him over to the building where his lessons were undertaken. Once inside the building that, while on the outside was made of concrete, on the inside it looked like it was made purely out of wood, the maid sneaked off to a bench further inside the large structure.

The structure itself had few windows and those that it had were high above. That is because the building was, in fact, a dojo. It had one large, central room which contained a "soft" section lined with mattresses and a "hard" section which did not have any of the soft luxuries. Aside from the central room, it also had one room below which was for weight lifting and various other strength enhancing exercises, one room further down that was the teacher's personal room and a wardrobe near the entrance for students to change into their training clothes.

After he got changed into shorts, a T-shirt and sneakers, he went into the main room where his teacher was already waiting for him with a few books at his side and two cups of tea.

For two hours, his teacher taught him even more about what he was meant to learn - how to interact with people, how to control his own emotions, how to be decisive. But that was not it. During the second hour of their studies, his teacher began teaching him various fighting moves. Naturally, John was still rather clunky with them, especially complex moves, such as combined kicks with punches, and not nearly as fast or precise in their execution as he was, but his teacher was patient and gladly demonstrated various moves multiple times over. It was not because he was paid to do so by John's parents, but because he was a friend of the family and because, as a martial arts instructor, he was patient and thorough, and not willing to let a single detail slip by.

While as a training regime it may seem rather gruesome due to the intense mental and physical courses that a simple eight year old has to undergo, to John it was nothing out of the ordinary and thanks to the teachings and proper planning from his teacher, he has learned to avoid exhaustion by conserving energy and breathing properly, as well as always carrying the proper type of snacks after his practices.

After a series of kicks, punches and various combinations, John was told to maintain balance for as long as he could on just one foot. The teacher slowly packed a few light books atop young John's head just to test his balance. That was the final test of the day. It always seemed like the same test over and over.

After many months of practicing, John actually had great balance. The stack of six lightweight paper-backed books on his head shook only a few times, but never fell. And John had to stay in that pose for the better part of twenty minutes, until the wall-mounted digital clock hanging over the entrance to the teacher's personal room hit precisely 19:00 and sent a signal throughout the dojo reminiscent of clocktower sounds in old cities in Europe.

That was a sign that John's training for the day was done. He returned to the wardrobe, got dressed in his usual clothing and, with the family maid, returned back home just in time for dinner.

John was allowed two hours of free time every day. From 19:30 to 20:00, he had dinner. From 20:00 to 22:00, he had to take a shower, brush his teeth and do whatever he wanted with his time off. He spent that free time playing video games on his personal computer inside his bedroom. John's bedroom was located in his home's second floor with the one and only window pointing out to the sea.

Every evening he caught a good glimpse of the calm sea before he went to bed and January 24 was no exception. By 21:50, he had finished playing his games and turned off his computer. As he turned to look through the window, he noticed how bright it was outside. As he looked slightly higher - as much as the window allowed him to - he noticed a sky full of bright stars as well as a lot of air traffic from various spacecraft - including small warships of the UNSC Navy - or ordinary aircraft flying over. Stargazing was one of the free things John really enjoyed in his otherwise controlled lifestyle. It made him imagine the future of his life with some glimmer of hope that he could be a simple explorer, charting out the unknown and braving the strange.

But his dreams had to end soon after he started imagining them. By exactly 10 PM, the young boy in his black pajamas got into his large bed and quickly fell asleep.

Fortunately for him, January 24 was a Friday, so that meant the two following days were off from school. Unfortunately, he had an additional task - a school project with three other kids from his class.

* * *

Over the weekend, Christopher and Jeromy looked up every bit of information that they could about their selected colony of Bismarck III. They carefully wrote down every sentence that involved the description of the colony's history and terrain, including that of its three moons. Their work occupied almost their entire weekend, leaving them only a few hours of free time by the evening of Sunday. But knowing that finishing early would leave them with a lot of time to spend on interactions with one another, especially after school from Monday to Thursday, meant that they were pleased with their rapidly finished tasks.

Throughout the week, from January 27th to January 30th, Chris, Jeromy and Myra often got together around John's table, mostly during lunch and after school, to talk as they waited for their relatives to come pick them up. Over the period of four days, three of them managed to bond with each other while John was the far more reluctant one to befriend anyone. However, by January 30th, John began to be more open, more talkative. That was likely due to him eventually surrendering his hopes of being left alone and just starting to speak with the rest.

It went as well as could be expected for a group of eight year olds. But they were also rather tense, thus getting slightly less talkative and more outwardly nervous due to the upcoming presentation on January 31st.

* * *

 **January 31st, 11:45 hours  
** The four had gathered around John's table and were listening to the presentations the rest of their classmates had made and prepared. Most were indeed about the more recognizable places that kids would know right off the top of their heads, but about two were about distant planets, one of which was Reach and the other was about Mars.

As John, Myra, Jeromy and Christopher listened, they also paid attention to the digital clock showing the time in red numbers mounted just above the exit. It was precisely 11:45. That also meant that their turn was coming up.

They got nervous. Especially Myra.

Jeromy, Christopher and Myra looked up to John who had stood up from his seat while they weren't paying attention and had looked right towards the front of the classroom, staring at the group that had just finished up their presentation about the Russian Federation. The three were hoping to find some solace by looking at him, but all they saw in John's face was his usual, emotionless stare. It was as if the entirely of his emotions were equivalent to that of a brick. Specifically, that he had none.

But deep inside, John was nervous. He spent his first months at school specifically avoiding crowds, but now he was forced to stand in front of some thirty people who would judge him and his presentation that he made with his new "friends," as he reluctantly called them.

Despite all his training, despite his family getting him trained to show no emotion, to control emotions inside of him and to be decisive, he felt the exact opposite crawl over him at that moment. He wanted to scream. He was screaming in his own mind, but his voice just wanted to lash out as the fear of crowds was almost overwhelming his mind, despite him not showing it, except for his eyes scanning every corner of the room in front of him.

"Time to go," John said to his fellows that were right next to him. With his datapad firmly secure in his right hand, John marched forward first. He was quickly followed by Myra, then Christopher and lastly - Jeromy. Within about twenty seconds, they got to the front of the classroom. John connected his datapad with the monitor at the front of the screen and a planet with three moons appeared right behind all four of them, on that same monitor. The lights in the classroom dimmed as the planet on the monitor transferred to a holographic depiction of it just in front of the four of them.

For a while, there was nothing but silence. Myra was playing with her fingers in a nervous manner and looking down at the ground, Christopher and Jeromy were whispering with each other and John had his eyes closed and was slowly taking deep breaths until a particularly loud exhale that the three others and their teacher could hear.

He began, letting his friends know that the presentation was starting.

"Our presentation is about a distant and struggling colony officially called 'Bismarck Three.' Unofficially, it has been nicknamed 'Sanctuary,' because of the numbers of people running to it from all corners of our territories. The planet is located within the Bismarck system - a star system orbiting a G-type star thirty-one light-years from our own star."

He seemed calm and collected as he was delivering the presentation. His use of phrases such as "G-type star" and "light-years" surprised the class and the teachers, as most barely understood the concept of a kilometer or a meter, let alone light-year, which was on a whole new level. But the teacher seemed pleased.

Christopher whispered to Jeromy specifically about the fancy words John was using.

"Hey, Jeromy, what's a 'gee-type star?'" He leaned in a bit closer to Jeromy, so he could whisper without anyone else overhearing their conversation. After hearing Chris, Jeromy leaned closer too to deliver his answer.

"John mentioned it once, it's an orange star. Have you seen one of those exploration movies? They have all these cool stars with different colors," Jeromy replied, getting a bit carried away in the process.

"One or two with my older brother Christian," Christopher answered as he remembered seeing a movie about old explorers flying past a blue star.

"I think John must have seen them and just picked up on the types or something," Jeromy continued as he then subtly pointed at the teacher, "and he seems to approve of it."

Christopher chuckled silently. He was worried all this time about their teacher tearing their grades down, because of them using terms that others were unaware of.

For the next fifteen minutes, Myra and John continued presenting information about the colony they chose to describe to their classmates, with Jeromy and Christopher often chiming in and offering interesting bits of information about it, like how massive the trees on the planet were or how rocky one of its moons is. They did that in their usual, entertaining manner in which they leaned closer to their classmates with an index finger raised as they chanted the phrase "did you know" in many variations.

By 12:05, their presentation was done. It was long and exhausting and full of information. For some of their classmates, it was too boring, so they had turned to having whisper-quiet talks amongst themselves. But as the group finished their ambitious presentation, they all turned their attention towards the teacher who was sitting a bit off to the side. He stood up, revealing his full height to the class - he was about 179 centimeters tall, averagely built with a square face and gray-colored eyes, with short, light brown hair with signs of graying in them. As was the rule, he was also wearing the school's black jacket, trousers and derby shoes and a white shirt with a black tie underneath.

He looked at the group of four kids and smiled at them.

"Well done, little ones!" He picked up his datapad and began evaluating the information that had been uploaded unto it from their presentation while he was also verbally evaluating what he had heard from them. "You four did a very complex task. When I asked you to make a presentation, I had expected you to talk about the United Republic, France, Japan or something along those lines, which is easier for everyone to wrap their heads around, but you went above and beyond."

For a moment, he stood silent while the only sounds heard were those of his fingers tapping virtual buttons on his square-shaped datapad. After that short moment passed, he continued with his evaluation.

"What's fortunate is that you, kids, are attending a school where excellence needs to be brought out sooner or later, instead of just knowledge being poured into your heads. You did well, but you could have toned down the overly complex terms, like classes of stars and distance from our star. Many did not seem to catch up on it. However, I won't take away too many points just for that. Each one of you is getting a niner for this task. You may return to your seats," the teacher gestured towards John's seat while he meant that all four should return to their original seats.

The group indeed returned to where they usually sat individually, not around John's table.

As Christopher returned to his usual seat, he felt like he was at a loss for words. Jeromy, on the other hand, felt inspired by this. He wanted to learn more. Myra looked humble and nervous after that presentation, but as the class turned to look at John, he had returned to being his usual self - staring through the window and not showing any noteworthy emotions. But despite this, his heart was beating like crazy, because he was only now internally calming down from the wave of fear that had hit him when he was in front of the class. He even registered how his voice shook a few times.

But he felt good after it. He felt great after having delivered a long presentation and received a nine out of ten for the work he and his friends poured into it. It was one of the many lessons he suddenly understood he needed to learn by himself. That interacting with people, especially groups of people, can only be learned through action and determination and that lessons only provide a foundation.

After their grand presentation, after their first real anxiety-filled moment, their day passed relatively uneventfully. They had lunch, continued to sit through ordinary lessons and by 16:00 their relatives arrived to pick them up. Or, in John's case, a maid serving the family while the parents were away due to their work.

In the end, it was yet another Friday that just passed while they studied. John had to attend his afterschool activities and give a report to his teacher about what he learned. Myra passed her free time doing homework, then playing with her two siblings. Christopher and Jeromy, after having finished their homework, both spent their time on Waypoint, texting to one another and later playing various games also over Waypoint.

That was their day. Their usual routine.

Over the next few months, the four spent more and more time together, even going so far as to ask their teacher for permission to swap seats just so all of them could sit in the same corner instead of all around the classroom. They had all found seats around John, who categorically refused to move away from his rather comfortable place near the back of the classroom and next to the large windows.

By May 30, all of them graduated from their first grade in the Norfolk Bayside Private Academy. All four of them, after having studied together since the end of January, graduated first grade with some of the highest grades among their peers.

With their second semester well spent learning, they went on their summer holidays fully expecting to know each other better. Even the generally non-communicative John was, at least partially, hoping to get to know his new "friends" better.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm certain some of you don't know what "Waypoint" and "ChatterNet" means. Waypoint is the Halo universe's version of the human internet that is usually moderated by the Office of Naval Intelligence, thus containing "approved" content. ChatterNet on the other hand is a more privatized, but localized form of the future internet. Considered relatively dated by the 26th century, but still in use, it is generally not monitored by ONI, but it is considered much more secure to potential hacking attempts, but it is localized in the sense that it encompasses a single planet or star system.**

 **Anyway, thank you for reading the first chapter of my rewritten stories in which I will tell the story of my characters in the Halo universe.**


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